HE leader of the Welsh Conservatives has pledged the forthcoming election will be much more than a political slanging match. Rather than wallowing in negative campaigning, Nick Bourne has encouraged his party to inspire voters with an alternative vision of Wales.

The suggestion that this election could be about policy and not personality has to be welcomed.

Daring to enter the political battlefield armed with policies instead of "dirt" on a challenger requires immense courage. Political consultants on both sides of the Atlantic have come to the conclusion that the filthiest fighter wins.

The first President Bush stormed out of the doldrums and into the White House only when he lunged for the jugular of Democratic rival Michael Dukakis. His son's 2000 campaign portrayed Vice President Al Gore as a man who had claimed to have invented the internet.

Character assassination and political campaigning have become synonymous. It is a brave man or woman who stands for election, and an even braver one who tries to appeal to the hopes of the electorate rather than their fears.

The escalation in the nastiness of elections is sometimes down to the similarities of the three main parties. According to this theory, when Labour no longer wants to get rid of nuclear missiles or the House of Lords, and the Tories have no plans to privatise the NHS or scrap income tax, voters will pick the candidate who looks most like Hugh Grant and least like a serial killer.

This is patronising baloney. When voters are lying on hospital trolleys waiting after 13 hours in an emergency department littered with drunks, they are not worrying that the MP in their constituency can't remember who won Big Brother.

When a train fare for a two-hour journey costs more than a flight to Toronto, there is clearly room for new ideas on how to run Britain.

Politicians are generally people who get the same type of excitement out of finding a good idea as a music promoter does when he or she comes across a busker who could be the new Bruce Springsteen.

The reason why so many of them seem awkward and slimy when attacking an opponent is because this is how they feel. They entered the gruelling arena of politics because a curious mixture of idealism and self-belief convinced them they could make Britain a better place in which to live.

Across Wales there are men and women prepared to make a weekly journey to Westminster to fight for ideas they believe can make a difference to people's lives.

If the daft politics of Margaret's Shoulder and Jennifer's Ear is swapped for something more substantial, the politicians and the voters of this country will be glad.